Westminster College desired to upgrade its athletic facilities to improve the athlete and student body collegiate experience. This included a complete field replacement of the men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse field with synthetic turf, LED lighting, fencing and safety netting, and terraced spectator bleacher seating.
The field and seating were designed to meet ADA standards, providing access to both players and coaches as well as visitors. The field was enlarged to exceed minimum standards for NCAA. DRAW designed the field to creatively fit into a very limited site area, while retaining the aesthetics of the quaint, rural campus and accommodating the future construction of new, adjacent tennis courts.
A new women’s natural turf softball field was also designed for the College. The field included dugouts and fencing, an ADA pathway from the existing parking, and new bleacher seating. Issues of poor drainage were addressed in the new design. A rain garden mitigates the stormwater runoff generated from the small increase in impervious surface. The field was also designed to enhance the player and spectator experiences.
A new men’s baseball field meeting 2020 NCAA regulations was also designed. The synthetic turf field has a 400’center field, allowing post-season tournament play. The field includes dugouts, bleachers, score board, net backstop, batter’s eye fence, bull pens and batting cage. Field lighting and a press-box/ concessions stand were accommodated in the design, but will be built in the future.
Challenges overcome in the design included fitting the large field between two existing streams, grading the site and stormwater management facility to be above the site’s high water table, maximizing the parking while avoiding existing overhead utility lines, and maintaining room for a future Indoor Practice Facility on the site.